Monday 18 August

Another great session…

Thanks to Elsie and Lucy for preparing and sharing their quiz today!
Great work!

This weeks new word: Trilogy
What is a trilogy?
- a group of three related novels - to be read in sequence.

Trilogy Quiz questions

to be added

This weeks new books: Maximum Ride Trilogy James Patterson

Maximum Ride is a series of young adult fantasy novels by the author James Patterson, with a manga adaptation published by Yen Press. The series is centered around the adventures of Maximum "Max" Ride and five other characters after their escape from the lab facility known as The School. Their group is labeled the Flock, reminiscent of the fact that each of the main characters are avian-human hybrids, (they have wings) a result from the Flock's past involvement with The School. (wikipedia)

Monday 11 August

This week we introduced a new book written by Laura Dockrill. 

Move over, Jacqueline Wilson. Darcy Burdock could just be the new Tracy Beaker.

.

Britain finally has an answer to Jeff Kinney and his Wimpy Kid! Many have tried, but few have come close

Introducing Darcy Burdock, a new, cool, all-conquering girl character with a fresh and distinctive take on the world. Ten-year-old Darcy is one of life's noticers. Curious, smart-as-a-whip, funny and fiercely loyal, she sees the extraordinary in the everyday and the wonder in the world around her.

There are parts of the book that aren't written in Darcy's voice, as she also includes some of her own stories. You see, Darcy desperately wants to be a writer, and when something affects her, be it making her angry or sad, she invariably turns to her coveted notebook and turns her thoughts into a story. And wonderfully, these add to the appeal of the book rather than distract the reader from Darcy's ramblings, as her writing voice is just as funny and endearing.

I really think that this book will also have huge boy appeal - it is certainly NOT just a girly book. I guess that the marketing for Darcy Burdock may look more girl oriented than boy friendly, but just like Diary of a Whimpy Kid was marketed towards boys and yet girls really enjoyed it also.

This weeks word was: cliché

Examples of clichés

Banjo and Ruby Red

What do you need to know?

written by Libby Gleeson

illustrated by Freya Blackwood

The Green Bath

What do you need to know?

Written by Margaret Mahy
Illustrated by Steven Kellogg
Published by Arthur A Levine Books - An imprint of Scholastic Inc.

It begins with Sammy, whose obnoxious neighbors get to go to the beach in their brand new boat, while he has to get clean for a visit from grandma. Worse, it's a bath in the strange tub his dad just bought at a tag sale! But the magic of the tub soon has Sammy roaring out to sea, befriending a giant sea serpent, conquering pirates in a huge soapy battle, and returning home with the greatest of treasures. 

Bath time will never be the same! (Plus Grandma's got surprises of her own!)

Margaret Mahy (1936 - 2012)

- worked as a librarian in NZ before becoming a full time writer.
- beloved by generations of readers
- wrote over 150 books
- 2006 received the Hans Christian Andersen award for her contribution to children's literature

Steven Kellog
- lives in Essex, New York
- has illustrated many books including  Is your Mama a Llama? and The Day Jimmy's boa Ate the Wash

Monday 4 August

Exciting Times!

The new screen and apple TV have been installed in the Library. Today we used the new TV - Thank you so much to the PTA who have funded this. It is a vast improvement on the projector and whiteboard we have been using.


Author Presentation - Niamh Calder presented her work on RA Spratt.

An excellent presentation - thanks Niamh!

Literary Terms

Biography
Autobiography
Foreword
Afterword

This weeks word - genre

Cian shared his presentation of The Three Bears…. Sort of! This presentation was made for the Year 5/6 students who are preparing for the quiz in September. The application that he used is called Videoscribe - this is a great presentation tool - however it is not a free application - so please check with your parents before you download it.

We introduced Narrable - this is another presentation tool - this one is free and easy to use.

Here is an example of a presentation using Narrable. This was downloaded from the internet.




You can consider using Narrable when you next need to do a presentation.


Andrew shared a great presentation on how to use the application overdrive to search books in the Christchurch Public Library. You can place books on hold and also take out ebooks and read them on an iPad or ebook reader.

Overdrive is a free application - thanks Andrew! You made it look easy! Remember everyone that you need one of the new blue library cards to access the library in this way.

Book Reviews

Several people have completed Book Reviews - these will be posted very soon - watch this space!